I am no fan of gross- out movies and am obviously a big fan of free speech so I thought I would ignore the whole thing. But t won't ignore me. So a few thoughts.
I think a dignified protest by the Kazakhs (including a good- humored one by Nazarbayev's daughter) is just about the right reaction.
Not only is Kazakhstan NOT anti- Semitic-- according to a Jewish Kazakh acquaintance, Almaty has traditionally been a place of refuge for Jews. I have seen an Orthodox Jewish teacher with side- curls there, followed by a line of students in yarmulkes.
Steve Sailer thinks that the character is more about Eastern Europeans than Central Asians. Certainly this article about how he conned a village of Romanian Gypsies lends truth to that theory.
At Slate, Christopher Hitchens has some sharp observations.
Says Chas, who sent me the Romanian clip: "Funny, Kazakhs seem to the only ones not complaining loudly. I heard that the "Borat" movie was banned in Russia though. Anyone suing Cohen will have to get in line, though, behind the American frat boys and the Turkish comic who claimed that *he* was the inspiration for the Borat character."
I think I'll imagine the obnoxious boor being booted off Komsomol Peak (don't know if it has a new name) by my friend, the Kazakh mountain guide and karateka Margulan. BOOM!
3 comments:
Well, try being a minister on Sunday morning when a joker like this shows up.
I don't mind the horse pucky. It's the "mankini" that just too...too....um... well, heck, it's worse than Pamela Anderson and her implants, though quite a bit smaller.
Prairie Mary
Of course he is actually referring to Eastern Europe. A couple of clues. In his greetings he says something like “yakshimyish” which sounds to me like the Ukrainian for “how are you” and when he finishes he says something that sounds like “ginkuyu” which is probably the Polish for thank you. There are millions of Poles and Ukrainians in North America but probably about 19 khazaks. So he avoids problems by picking a nationality that no one knows anything about.. Did you know that Khazakstan has actually got a pretty decent national ice hockey team. BGH
Pretty good in all winter sports, and they have a great winter sports arena in the Tian Shan foothills, the "Medeu".
I also met a wrestler who won the bronze in the Olympics in Australia a few years back.
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